


a [f]ragile peace

by sevenzeroseven



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 19:05:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10394049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenzeroseven/pseuds/sevenzeroseven
Summary: Do androids dream of electric sheep? 2B introspection. Post-game drabble.





	

It's strange waking up when the last thought she had was—

_This is it. It's over._

And with that thought had come a crushing sense of—relief? Sadness? In retrospect, it may have been both and more, happiness too. Surprisingly, she can remember every moment in vivid detail despite the logic virus muddying her senses. She remembers the cool, excruciating slide of metal through abdomen and circuits, the scrape of stone against synthetic skin and thigh, the static buzz of slowly losing her mind.

Most of all, though, she remembers 9S. She remembers the odd yet familiar flush of warmth when he called her name.

Or maybe that'd been the blood spilling from her wound, staining her dress, coating her sword, and dying her memories red, but she likes to think it was warmth—real, _human_ warmth—the sort she wished she could feel without guilt, and in that moment, she did. It wasn't atonement; she couldn't die enough deaths to make up for what she'd done to him

over,

and over,

and over again.

But this time, _this time_ , she could save him, **really** save him when she overtook his controls, when she sent him from the battlefield, when she looked up at A2 with red-tinted eyes and asked her to kill her. (So he wouldn't have to, so he'd never know what it feels like to be in her shoes, so her secrets could die with her, so he wouldn't find out and _hate_ her for them.)

...Ah. You're a coward after all, aren't you?

But if nothing matters anymore, if there is no Bunker, no Commander, no YoRHa to beholden her to her duties, is it wrong to follow her heart?

_Activation of unit 2B confirmed. Good morning, 2B._

Humans once had religions. They believed in the afterlife. If this is the afterlife, someone's made a mistake.

"2B..."

So gentle, a broken, reverent whisper carried on a soft spring breeze. She thinks it sounds familiar, achingly so.

"2B, it's you; it's really you... right...?"

2B recognizes the hint of desperation in his voice; it mirrors that of her own in the past (so, so many times in the past, three years that feel like three millennia and three seconds all at once). 

A hand brushes against her cheek. Hesitant. Tremulous. _Afraid_.

2B has never been one for praying. It's always been a perfunctory thing, a gesture of respect for the fallen, but now she sincerely _prays_. ' _God_ ,' she thinks as she feels fumbling fingers pry the mask from her eyes, 'if this is a dream, please, _please_ don't let me wake up.'

**Author's Note:**

> maaaaaan i hate posting short shit buuut i figured why not the nier: automata fic-dom is young and im terrible at writing long pieces without them feeling really forced so :') thanks for reading '3'


End file.
